The number of people killed by measles around the world has declined by 48 percent since the late 1990s, according to the World Health Organization (WHO) and the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF).

The global measles death toll went from 871,000 in 1999 to 454,00 in 2004. The largest reduction was in sub-Sahara Africa, where measles cases and deaths declined by 60 percent, BBC News reported.